Chapter 8

It was a tense walk to the headmaster�s office. Snape had shown up just as breakfast was ending and told Harry to follow him to see Dumbledore. Neither of them had spoken the whole way, but Harry could tell that there was something bothering Snape. He just hoped it had nothing to do with this sudden meeting. Suddenly, a billion questions about the nature of the meeting began running through his mind; what if they�d changed their minds? What if they were going to expel him? What if they sent him to St. Mungos? What if they�d told Sirius and he�d decided to pull Harry out of Hogwarts? What if�

"Potter," Snape said, his sharp tone cutting through Harry�s daze and effectively shaking him back to reality. They�d already made it to Dumbledore�s office and Snape had given the password. With an air of trepidation, Harry ascended the stairs to the headmaster�s office, Snape following close behind.

"Ah, Harry! Come in, come in!" Dumbledore�s voice rang out just as Harry raised his fist to knock on the headmaster�s door. Briefly wondering how Dumbledore did that, he nodded and stepped inside, with Snape coming in behind him. Dumbledore gestured to a chair across from him, and Harry took it. Snape stood behind Harry and placed a hand on his shoulder. Harry wasn�t sure if it was meant to be comforting, but somehow it only made him feel even more nervous. "Hot chocolate?" Dumbledore offered. Harry reluctantly took it and sipped it politely, although his stomach felt like it was going to turn inside-out from nerves.

"Headmaster, perhaps you should get to the point?" Severus suggested after an extended silence where Harry sipped his hot chocolate. Snape could feel the boy trembling beneath his hand ever-so-slightly, probably from nerves, and Snape felt that making him even more uncomfortable would probably be counter-productive.

Dumbledore sighed inwardly as he gazed at Harry. He wished that he didn�t have to give the poor man such painful news � Harry had suffered enough already. Nevertheless, he had to know. "Harry, I�m afraid I have some bad news�"

Harry felt his stomach drop. Bad news? How could there be more bad news? Weren�t things bad enough? What else could possibly go wrong?

Dumble dore cleared his throat as Severus grasped Harry�s other shoulder as well. "I�m afraid, Harry, that something went wrong on Sirius�s mission�"

Sirius?! Something was wrong with Sirius?! Harry sent a prayer up to whatever deity happened to be listening. Not Sirius. Please, don�t take Sirius away�

"I�m sorry," Dumbledore continued, "but Sirius didn�t make it. He�s dead."

Harry�s whole body froze up and his mind went totally blank for a moment before the tears began to fall. "No," he whispered.

"Harry, I�" Dumbledore began, but was unable to finish as Harry stood up and wrenched himself from Severus�s grasp.

"No!" Harry cried out. "He�s not gone! He can�t be! He promised he wouldn�t leave me alone! He swore it! He can�t be dead!" And with that, Harry dashed out of the headmaster�s office, tears streaming down his face.

Severus found Harry lying face down on his bed in their rooms. He�d stopped crying, but he was still muttering about Black. Severus sat beside him on the bed and rubbed his back awkwardly. Damn Black; how dare he go off and get himself killed after promising Harry that he would come back. Severus knew that he was being ridiculous, that Black had fully intended to come back. Nevertheless, it irked him that Harry had to suffer just because his mutt of a godfather couldn�t keep a simple promise.

"Professor?" a tiny voice said from the bed. Severus looked down at Harry. "I just�can you leave me alone?" the boy continued timidly. Severus nodded, then headed for his lab. Upon reaching the door connecting the lab to the room, however, he turned back and looked at Harry, who had curled himself into a ball.

"I�m sorry, Harry," Severus whispered before continuing into his lab.

Harry refused to leave his bed for three days after that. He wouldn�t eat or communicate with anyone. It had gotten to the point where Dumbledore sent Ron and Hermione down to visit Harry in Severus�s chambers (which, of course, Severus was not thrilled with, but he gave in and allowed it for Harry�s sake), but Harry turned them away the moment they entered.

On the fourth day, however, Harry did finally get up. He was alone; Snape must have had a class to teach or something, and Harry realized he had a perfect opportunity on his hands. If Sirius couldn�t come back to see him, then he would go to see Sirius. He started tearing the room apart, searching desperately for something to help him, but found nothing. He tried to get into Snape�s workroom to see if there wasn�t anything in there that could help him, but Snape had sealed it up with a powerful locking spell and Harry couldn�t get through. That left only one more place to look�

Harry was at Snape�s dresser in four strides. He tore open the top drawer � silly man hadn�t put a locking spell on the dresser � and began rummaging around. Nothing. Slamming that drawer shut, he moved on to the middle drawer. There, at the bottom of the drawer, hidden by a pile of folded robes, was a vial. Harry seemed to recall writing a paper for Snape�s class on a particularly fatal poison that looked much like the contents of the vial. Smirking, he grabbed it, popped the cork keeping its contents sealed, and downed the whole thing. Blackness soon took him and he collapsed to the floor.